Bessie Blount Griffin

Blount's Portable Receptacle Support
Bessie Blount was born in Virginia in 1914. She trained as a physical therapist in New Jersey and Chicago.
During World War II she worked with injured soldiers and her encounter with them inspired her to invent an electrically driven feeder.
The device had a feeder which delivered food one mouthful at the time to wheelchair bound or bed-ridden patients. The food was delivered each time the patient bit down on the feeding tube.
She also invented the portable receptacle holder that could be worn around a patient's neck.
Bessie Blunt Griffin was neither able to interest, nor market her inventions and patent rights were given to the French govenrment which put her inventions to good use.
Her portable receptacle holder, however, received a U.S. patent in 1951 (Patent Number 2,550,554).

Isis Egyptian Goddess of Healing

References

Mothers and Daughters of Invention by Autumn Stanley (Rutgers University Press, 1995) p.177.